Book Sharing

I enjoyed the book talk or book sharing in class.  I think this would be fun to do in the classroom.  Instead of book reports the students could form a "book club" or book talk. This would also encourage reading because the students may take interests in what the other students are reading.  Here is another idea I learned at my field placement;  instead of the students conducting a gift exchange at Christmas, they could have a book exchange.  Have a "this book belongs to" sticker or stamp ready so the students can label their books.  The students exchanging books instead of gifts is inexpensive and fair.  It also promotes reading.

Story Path

This past week we learned about story path in class.  I really enjoyed it!  I can't wait to do this in the classroom.  There are so many subjects and ideas you can cover with story path.  Dr Meier suggested spending two to three weeks on story path.  If you are worried about the time, break the students into groups and let them work on it in centers. I think you could do a story path in a week to go along with any unit.  Pick a social studies subject like the Civil War.  Some students can be the union and the others the confederate.  The reading center they can read stories related to the subject.  The computer center they can research.  The art center they can decorate the scene and the characters.The writing center they can write about the character, events, or how they could make changes.  I think you could teach a lesson using story path at least once a month.  

Veterans Day

My town has a Veterans Day parade or ceremony every year.  Some of the local schools will walk to the parade.  If you don't have this opportunity in your town allow your class to do something special to celebrate.  Encourage your students to invite a veteran family member to come and speak to the class and hang up pictures from the past of veteran family members. Maybe the entire school could participate by having a parade or assembly at the school.  Children need to understand the value of patriotism.

Legends and Folktales

Children love folktales or legends.  These stories contain a moral, maybe trickery or a lesson to be learned.  Now let's integrate social studies!   Folktales and legends are a great way to teach students moral values and how to be good workers.  What a wonderful way to teach children to become good citizens.  Here are a few good book titles:
Anansi Goes Fishing (There are other Anansi books)
Tops and Bottoms
The Legend of the Indian Paint Brush
The Legend of the Blue Bonnet

Teaching Social Studies

There is never anytime to teach Social Studies, or is there?!  This is a big concern in schools and unfortunately Social Studies is being neglected.  I wanted to share a simple situation that happened in my observation classroom.  Their reading story for this week is Dear Juno. In the story Juno writes letters to his grandmother in Korea.   This story is in their basal reader, which list the Social Studies standards.  The story contains communication, goods and services, technology, signs and symbols, and comparing cultures.  The teacher also taught geography with this lesson.  They discussed the Social Studies elements in this story and the teacher looked up a map of Korea to show them on the smart board. They also watched a short video on the culture.  In the class discussion the teacher made a concept map allowing them to list different forms of communication.  In the writing center they wrote letters.  It didn't take up a lot of time but the students learned Social Studies, along with reading and writing.  See there is still hope!

Citizenship

How can we teach our students to become good citizens?  In the class where I am doing my observations the teacher had a problem with some of the students acting up or not following the rules on the playground.  When it was time to come back inside she had them sit on the reading rug so they could talk about THEIR concerns with what happened on the playground.  Different students discussed what happened.  So the teacher did not fuss or yell at them, she let them express what went wrong and how those problems could be fixed.  Then she turned the situation into a Social Studies lesson about how to be a good citizen.  The students had prior knowledge about the subject from some of their reading stories. At the end of the day the students made a concept map listing items of good citizenship.  Then they colored a paper quilt piece, in the middle they listed one of the qualities from the concept map.  They cut the pieces out and they were all glued onto a large piece of paper.  The students made their own class quilt of good citizenship.

Geo Caching

I really enjoyed geocaching! This is great for family time.  It is also great for a classroom activity and teaching geography.  Even if you can't actually geocache with your students, you could set up scavenger hunts outside around the school or in the classroom.  Let the students make predictions and estimate where they will find the articles and then test it using measurements.   If you want the studenst to learn states, countries, and continents set up these areas in the classroom, let the students travel to each area collecting artifacts to direct them to the next destination.